Asian Movie Reviews

Thermae Romae (2012)

Lucius Modestus is a Roman architect living in 135 AD. One day he loses his job to another architect who has more elaborate ideas for improving things than him. Deciding to go to a bathhouse to get over his disappointment, Lucius goes underwater as he thinks that’s the only place he’ll get some peace and quiet. Finding a tunnel in the bath wall at the bottom of the pool, Lucius is sucked through the tunnel by a whirlpool and emerges in a bathhouse in present-day Japan. At first unsure where he has landed, he marvels at the wonders in this bathhouse and thinks he could implement some of the things he has seen into his own designs. It is here he meets struggling female part-time manga artist Mami Yamakoshi. Her ideas for a manga has been turned down and she is looking for inspiration. Lucius is thrown back to his own time where his ideas from the future is met with universal praise and gets some attention from Emperor Hadrian who is also quite an architect in his own right. Flirting back and forth through time, Lucius bring back more improvements for Roman bathhouses and unfortunately Mami, her father and some of his friends is also brought back to Rome where they help Lucius out. Emperor Hadrian is facing defeat in his battle against a rebellion due to tired soldiers. Can he create something using geothermal rocks which can help injured soldiers to recuperate and turn the tide of the battle to Rome’s favour……..

Based on the successful manga by Mari Yamazaki, this fish out of water tale is both funny and entertaining. The story might seem to be silly but it works really well. Both the Roman and Japanese people share a similar bathing culture. Even with a gap of 2000 years between the two nations, modern day Japan has carried on with something that was first created in Roman times. The first half of the movie concerns Lucius’ travels to present day Japan where he initially emerges butt naked like a Roman God in front of a group of old men (who Lucius calls flat-faced slaves!). He is amazed at what he sees in the place – a large mural of Mt Fuji on a wall which he mistakenly thinks is Mt Vesuvius, fruit flavoured milk and wicker clothes baskets. Walking around with no clothes on he barges unannounced into the women’s changing area who are shocked by him. An object thrown by one woman which hits him on the top of his head is all that’s needed for Lucius to wake up back in his own time. Several other trips to the future sees Lucius end up in a bath-tub in someone’s home, a shop where they sell showers and innovative Japanese toilets which are all implemented by Lucius in the past. It seems that whenever Lucius turns up in the future, Mami seems to be nearby which is all fine with her as she likes to sketch his chiselled body. The premise of a Roman man time travelling underwater to the future, finding a world so alien to his own and stealing ideas to use in the past gives the movie an interesting slant. Where else have we seen something like that? It may seem repetitive to some viewers these trips to the future but just when the plot is beginning to go stale things change in the second half where the plot moves into Roman politicial intrigue between Emperor Hadrian’s adopted son Ceionius and another man who also had a lot of clout with the Emperor named Antoninus. Even when the story starts to get a little serious there is still plenty of decent laughs to be had such as every time Lucius time travels we get a shot of a male opera singer in a meadow bellowing out a tune. There are some gripes I found with this movie especially with a badly staged battle near the climax which doesn’t look good onscreen at all but perhaps that was due to the budget. If you’re wondering how the Japanese film crew managed to recreate ancient Rome so well, the cast and crew flew over to make the movie at the famous Cinecitta Studio in Rome where they used a couple of thousand Italian people as extras to play Roman citizens.

Wisely the filmmakers decided not to have a foreigner to play the leading role and so they cast Abe Hiroshi as Lucius. Abe Hiroshi doesn’t look like your typical Japanese man so it was good move on their behalf. He provides good comic timing in several scenes and portrays a credible Roman man. The ladies will certainly enjoy the views of his arse and muscular body which can be seen in many scenes! Aya Ueto is her usual cute self and the chemistry between her character Mami and Lucius is believable. There’s a tiny hint of romance between the two but it’s never developed as Lucius is more interested in casting her aside. Mami is a person that struggles to make sense of Lucius’ unexpected appearances in the present day which gets her into trouble and eventually has her fired from her place of work as a saleswoman in a bathroom shop when Lucius drops into a bath when she’s working and her superiors think she’s brought a man into her workplace to bathe and wash himself! There’s something about Aya Ueto that’s just so charming, maybe it’s her smile that does it for me. Could it be that the character of Mami is based on the manga author Mari Yamazaki?

Overall, Thermae Romae is a fantastic movie which I really enjoyed. The great cast, storyline and comedy make for a fun two hours viewing experience. It’s a movie which you won’t regret watching.

Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

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3 Responses

Good review. This was such a hit that it stayed at number one for weeks in Japan and I have been dying to see it! It seems like it’s really great light-hearted fun. I’ve also been a fan of Hiroshi Abe ever since I saw him in Survive Style 5+.

It worked really well ?? Really ?? I saw it when I was in Japan and I must say that it was long and the story was hard to understand. I loved the sento/onsen part and when he brought back the inventions to Roman times, and seeing Abe Hiroshi naked is always a pleasure but I was not convinced ^^.
I agree with you that Abe Hiroshi was a good choice since he looked the part but when you hear Romans speaking in japanese at the beginning it is quite confusing.

In what way was the story hard to understand? The time travelling scenes perhaps? I’ll admit that some of the scenes don’t make sense such as when Lucius is walking through a field, falls into some water and suddenly he is back in the modern day but then again this is supposed to be an absurd comedy after all. In this kind of movie does the viewer really need to know the mechanics of how Lucius travels to the future?

I never felt that the movie went on for too long. The running time was just about right.